Last Exit for Reality

I'm still sitting here on a beautiful Mexican beach watching the sun rise. This mini vacation has been what I really needed.

The other day while I was walking down the beach I picked up an old, empty Maxwell coffee can. That reminded me of a case that started in the middle of Texas and ended near the border.

I got a call late one night to come to Homestead Air base to catch a flight to Texas. On my way I landed in Tampa and picked up a few other Agents. We were all briefed on what we were looking for and who we were after. The case was about the removal of certain missile tracking components. They needed to be found before they left the States. We landed in Wichita Falls and were picked up by helicopter and flown to Goodfellow AFB west of San Angelo, Texas.

The lead we got was about two days late. They had left by air from a small airport just south of San Angelo at Mathis Field. For some unknown reason they made a mistake and had filed a flight plan stating that they were heading towards Midland,Texas.

We followed them to Midland and got information that they were in a van headed towards Odessa, around 30 miles away. Two helicopters with lots of FBI and State police left for Odessa. That lead turned out to be false, these men were good.

I knew that the intell about the flight plan was too easy. What they had actually done was fly towards the border of Mexico and land near the city of Del Rio. The two helicopters followed suit and flew to Laughin AFB outside of Del Rio. Here we sat for almost two more days waiting and looking for more leads.

We finally got a break when one of the thieves was picked up for a traffic violation. The police found some papers with information about the components under the driver's seat.

We took him off their hands and brought him back to the base. After a little persuasion he told us they were in a blue van headed towards Eagle Pass. The plan was to cross at Piedres Negras, Mexico.

Our best hope was to catch them before they crossed the border. Dealing with the Mexican government is a job itself. The Mexican government and the local police are out of control and always looking for a pay off from us. The line we're always given is that the pay off is needed to cover their expenses.

After ten days on the road chasing these guys we finally caught up with them on our side of the boarder. They had stopped in a motel, biding their time for the perfect moment to cross the boarder at night.

The night manager did not like how these guys were acting nor the fact that they were traveling with a young girl with no other woman around. He called the police who contacted us. The girl was not known to us and had never been seen till then.

We moved in at three o'clock in the morning and raided the motel room. We caught them all without a fight. The missile tracking equipment was stashed in the shower stall with various pieces stuffed into old coffee cans.

I think it's time for another walk on the beach...